yeah! the information and lessons and theories are really interesting but the backstory itself is just so dull, it's just fluff
i sometimes wonder if i should just read the letters and not bother with sophie herself, but i feel like i'll miss something if i do that
I just finished reading Angelfall by Susan Ee and I LOVED it!
Now, I know with a title like that, it seems like just another paranormal romance Twilight type deal. But it's not, thank god.
It leans more toward Cormac McCarthy's The Road than it does Twilight. Apocalypse, cannibalism, an insane mother who trains her daughter (main character) to fight because she's afraid she will KILL her in a schizophrenic frenzy, etc. Also, the Angels in this are terrible harbingers of doom and destruction. And also agnostic.
There's romance but it's not the insta-love kind.
I'm surprised this is being categorized as Young Adult, but I guess it barely just squeezes into that category. And it was self published. Bravo to the author for getting this work out there on her own.
I blazed through this in one afternoon. Really really enjoyed it.
Ohh man, The Road is so great. I am tempted to pick up Angelfall now.
Last edited by Shorty; 10-11-2012 at 06:41 PM.
Just finished Unspoken By Sarah Rees Brennen and I really enjoyed it. Someone recommended to me a bunch of books (mostly Young Adult) with strong female characters and I've been making my way through the list.
Angelfall and Daughter of Smoke and Bone both had great female leads, but oh my goodness I am in love with Kami from Unspoken. So quirky, friendly, cheerful, funny, strong, determined, vulnerable. I want to be her best friend.
Still trudging along with Les Miserables. But I also recently finished Still Alice which just GUTTED me. I was so heartbroken by the end, not in a crying my eyes out kind of way, but more in a horrified, THAT COULD HAPPEN TO ME sort of way. Such a great book, especially if you're interested at all in alzheimer's.
Also halfway through Moonwalking with Einstein which is SO fascinating. Definitely hoping I can pick up some of the mnemonic tricks to improve my memory.
And furthering my quest to read as many books with badass female leads, I just started Mistborn by Brandon Sanderson and I'm really enjoying it so far. Enjoying it more than other fantasy books I've read in a while.
House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski
It's about a house that's bigger on the inside than it is on the outside and the family that lives there.
Imagine if you went home and all of a sudden there was a hallway in your living room that hadn't been there before, and you can't see it outside, but it goes for miles. The book is about what would happen if you discovered that space.
"The format and structure of the novel is unconventional, with unusual page layout and style. It contains copious footnotes, many of which contain footnotes themselves, and some of which reference books that do not exist. Some pages contain only a few words or lines of text, arranged in strange ways to mirror the events in the story, often creating both an agoraphobic and a claustrophobic effect. The novel is also distinctive for its multiple narrators, who interact with each other throughout the story in disorienting and elaborate ways."
Here's a few picture examples of page structure:
(SPOILER)
(SPOILER)
I'm currently reading "A Short History of Chinese Philosophy". 'Tis interesting.
I'm current reading The Pursuit of Italy by David Gilmour. I've been interested to learn more about Italian history, particularly the early modern Italian city states like Venice and Florence and about the Risorgimento. It hasn't done so much about the Roman period, which surprised and slightly disappointed me. In author does argue that the Roman Republic shouldn't be seen as an Italian national identity as such because the Romans didn't categorise themselves with specific reference to ethnicity, with numerous ethnicities playing roles throughout the Empire. I'm quite enjoying it - it goes into sufficient depth that I'm finding it quite interesting, it's expanding on some bits I already had a fair bit of knowledge about (e.g. Renaissance political thought and Florence) and it's a nice one volume history which isn't too lofty to read.
I finished Mistborn : The Final Empire
I thought it was great in the beginning, and then realized that it was in fact, crappy.
It's so weird how the book gets so much praise though. Do people who read fantasy novels just have a lower bar for what constitutes great writing? I thought the characters were unbelievable and weakly drawn, the story too typical, the writing lacking any subtlety or elegance. Any time the author went for depth it ended up silly, pseudo-intellectual and melodramatic.
And way, waaaay too long. If you're going to go on and on describing and explaining trout, you best be a terrific writer. Sanderson is not.
I wonder if I'll be able to find a high fantasy book that I actually like, or if the genre itself bothers me. For some reason, I find that a lot of people who write high fantasy write in a really similar style. A style I kind of hate.
Last edited by Miriel; 10-23-2012 at 09:18 AM.
For Whom the Bell Tolls. One of the few Hemingway novels I've not yet read. I'm quite entranced so far.